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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Pain Patch

What is convenience if not a patch for pain? A disconnect from
the harshness inherent in reality?

In front of me is a clock, conveniently powered by a battery.

Let’s break those conveniences down:

The sun set hours ago so the clock keeps me from having to
keep track of the movement of the stars in order to understand how much time I
have until tomorrow when this whole circus starts again.

The useful little battery keeps the clock running so I don’t have to worry
about winding it.

But let’s break the battery down while we’re at it, and
where did the parts come from? Who was involved in the production? In the
packaging, and the literal movement from factory to store to my home?

So much going on there, right? And it’s just a clock.

While there’s nothing painful specifically in the placement
of the clock on my wall, and in the reality of it ticking, ticking forward (or
backward, in this case, since it’s a backward clock), there is so much
potential for pain in the reality surrounding it.

Convenience is me letting go of that train of thought and
moving on rather than getting into the nitty-gritty, dirty details. You’re
welcome.

Because what is convenience if not movement? Change – action
– propelling us forward from the past, from this present, into something else
less hard.

I no longer have to churn butter to have butter. Car, store,
purchase, and *vwalla* Butter.

Conversely, though, I no longer need to know how to churn butter. Take away *vwalla* purchase, store, car.
Without all these conveniences I would have no butter?

This is oversimplification, I realize, but I was going to
launch into a drug analogy and that really was too painful. So I’m giving you
dairy products instead. Again, you’re welcome.

Conveniences are tricky because they lead us to believe we
just get to have the reward without much effort. But someone, somewhere, is
putting their shoulder to the proverbial wheel.